first washes on hendrix portrait

i did check the proportions of jimi's hands compared to his face and found that the fingers were about a 1/4" too long, so i corrected the drawing. the other thing that struck me was that the picture dimensions were not going to work with this figure so i redefined the painting area by drawing a rectangle around the area i thought would be appropriate.

redrawn hand and first washes: jimi hendrix

using a #8 round brush with a good point i painted the shadow on the the under plane of the nose using burnt sienna and cobalt blue. i gave it a good shake after rinsing and used the slightly wet brush to draw the paint up and over to the top planes of the nose.  this washed out the form on the under plane so i strengthened it by charging in some pure burnt umber wet-in-wet. i released the form into the upper lip using a dab of cerulean blue in the mid line drawing it up into the wet wash. i carried the wash with a little sliver of cobalt blue into the medial eye socket where it expanded into the upper lid using burnt sienna. the shadow under the upper lid was painted using burnt sienna and then i added the iris with burnt umber being careful to reserve the highlight. i released the iris into the lower lid using this small amount of paint to define the lower lid. watching the iris carefully i added the pupil wet-in-wet when the wash was just about dry using ultramarine blue.  the lateral aspect of the eye socket blended into the hair which was painted with ivory black and mineral violet.

close-up of first washes of jimi hendrix portrait

since i wanted a bit of a tie in with the far cheek i painted this with a combination of alizarin crimson permanent and burnt sienna.  the value was a little weak when it dried but i can restate it later.  it would have been a mistake to redo an area this large while it was still wet.....mud making move....remember? to finish this step i added a dab of pure cadmium red light right in the medial corner of the eye.  in the close-up you can see the way that the wash(es) all work together. connect, connect, connect....i keep saying to myself.  that's all for today.